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Little went well for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.

Yet he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a close loss.

Allen endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.

Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.

We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”

Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.

Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to play and it isn't a smart way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”

Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so many times during the game.

“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a few personally. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”

The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Texans. His second one came when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.

The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the first series of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.

No change. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re handling it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”

Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.

The quarterback was frustrated that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.

In the end, we’ve got perform, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”